Public workers highly paid? Not exactly.

Source: SF Chronicle

Public workers in California earn 7 percent less on average than private sector employees, but make about the same amount after benefits and other compensation are factored in, according to a study released Monday.

The study by economists at UC Berkeley and Rutgers University found that the similar wages and benefits exist despite the fact that 55 percent of public employees in the state have a college degree, compared with just 35 percent of California's private sector workers. Education levels are usually the most important factor in determining wages, but public employees do not get the same return for their education level as private sector employees, said co-author Sylvia Allegretto.

Allegretto, deputy chairwoman of UC Berkeley's Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics, co-authored the study with Jeffrey Keefe, an associate professor of labor and employment relations at Rutgers University.

Allegretto said the findings should put to rest some of the arguments over high public compensation, which has been a huge issue this election season and one that became particularly acute in California on the heels of a public corruption scandal in the Los Angeles County city of Bell.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/19/MNUJ1FUAOH.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz12pE1Ecld

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/19/MNUJ1FUAOH.DTL&tsp=1

exercise in the politics of resentment, driving people who are essentially in the same class against each other. And another example of "divide and conquer."

when compared to the private sector. Most government employees do not have to fear of being terminated which is a real fear private sector employees.

Most people would take a job with less pay if they felt they could be there until they retire.

It sure is. I am a public employee and I get tired of hearing about my great pay and wonderful benefits. What great pay? Some benefits are better and some are worse. My med insurance is above average, but yes, I pay for it. My vacation time is well below average, sick time pretty much the same. No disability whatsoever comes with the package, something I had at every private sector job I worked at. I can pay full ride for LTD, there is no short term available whatsoever. People who get prolonged sicknesses have to beg for others to donate vacation time to them or they get no compensation at all while doing their chemo. Forget about education reimbursement and they don't pay for training. I really don't know if the pension is any better than the private sector, those in the private sector who get a pension. The pension, which I might add, I pay through the nose for. My benefit costs have never been higher for comparable benefits, and it isn't higher med insurance that is doing it, it's the pension and LTD.

I am not complaining, I just get sick of hearing how I am going to be able to retire to my tropical mansion. Nothing could be more wrong. And I wish everyone would stop saying that the public sector needs to go defined contribution pension like the private sector. This is NOT. NOT, NOT a good development and must be fought, not wished for.

Local government workers in St. Johns County have seen their wages increase more rapidly than those of private sector workers in the last five years.

And the wages of local government workers were higher on average at the end of 2009 than those in the private sector, according to an analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.


http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2010-10-17/public-wage-growth-outpaces-private-sector

of the public sector being well lower than private sector, so what? When I was in college (the '70's) a steel worker made hourly what I make today hourly. I have a Masters and am employed in my field. I didn't resent his decent living then and I would appreciate it if he didn't resent my less than decent living that may be more than his less than decent living today.

You can make more here or there, private sector or public - whatever.
Pick your field and go with it, then more power to you.